Leadership
Jason J. Head
Group Leader University of Cambridge
jjh71@cam.ac.uk
A. Michelle Lawing
Group Leader Texas A&M University
alawing@tamu.edu
Jenny L. McGuire
Group Leader Georgia Institution of Technology
jmcguire@gatech.edu
Johannes Müller
Secretary Museum für Naturkunde
johannes.mueller@mfn-berlin.de
Gregory P. Dietl
Steering Group Paleontological Research Institute (PRI)
gpd3@cornell.edu
Jussi T. Eronen
Steering Group University of Helsinki
jussi.t.eronen@helsinki.fi
Mikael Fortelius
Steering Group University of Helsinki
mikael.fortelius@helsinki.fi
P. David Polly
Steering Group Indiana University
pdpolly@indiana.edu
Christoph Scheidegger
Steering Group Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
christoph.scheidegger@wsl.ch
Nils Chr. Stenseth
Steering Group University of Oslo
n.c.stenseth@bio.uio.no
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Integrative Climate Change Biology
A wealth of data now exists on biotic changes that occurred over the last one to two decades, but scientific understanding of the processes involved, the magnitude of the changes, and their likely outcomes is still in its infancy, largely due to the lack of long-term baselines against which to compare these data. The iCCB is working to provide appropriate baselines by integrating data from long-term ecological studies and the even longer-term data provided by paleontology. A trait-based, community macroecology approach allows integration of data across the temporal and spatial scales at which climate change biologists, ecologists, and paleontologists work. In its current phase, the iCCB is disseminating this approach through outreach aimed at researchers and university students around the world via web and strategically chosen conference symposia, through sharing of trait-based data to facilitate new research in this area, and through original research by iCCB working groups.
Scientific Consensus on Maintaining Humanity's Life Support Systems in the 21st Century
The vast majority of scientists who study the interactions between people and the rest of the biosphere agree on a key conclusion: that the five interconnected dangerous trends listed above are having detrimental effects, and if continued, the already-apparent negative impacts on human quality of life will become much worse within a few decades. The multitude of sound scientific evidence to substantiate this has been summarized in many recent position papers and consensus statements (a few samples are listed on pp. 28-29 of the full statement), and documented in thousands of articles in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. However, the position papers and consensus statements typically focus only on a subset of the five key issues (for example, climate change, or biodiversity loss, or pollution), and access to the peer-reviewed literature is often difficult for non-scientists. As a result, policy makers faced with making critical decisions can find it cumbersome both to locate the pertinent information and to digest the thousands of pages through which it is distributed.
Visit the Scientific Consensus website to learn more. |
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